I love boys! I feel so passionately that boys in our society are being failed and expected to behave like girls, but as a mother of 3 boys I want to bring mine up to be real men - strong, passionate risk takers. This blog is about our family's journey in raising our boys....

Friday, 28 March 2014

Pornography - Harmless Fun?

We read about the seven and eight
year old girls locked in cages and being raped 20 or more times each day and
our hearts weep.It is inconceivable and
horrific that such injustices exist in our world today.We think of the young girls we know, perhaps
our daughters or our sisters, and we shift uncomfortably in our seats.This has to stop, we think to ourselves.We might even begin to fundraise for an
abolitionist charity or raise awareness about trafficking.

And yet, if we are buying or
watching pornography either secretly or publicly, we are feeding the demand for
this very industry that causes our hearts to break.

This beautiful girl we met in Kolkata was around
9 years old and lived on the streets, making her
highly vulnerable to being trafficked.

Harmless?Just a bit of fun?Not affecting anyone else?

Now is the time to open your eyes
and see the truth.

The truth is that viewing porn
creates an addiction which trains your brain to expect more each time.This distorts the way you think about sex and
you begin to crave more violent or explicit experiences.

Porn creates an ‘on demand’ consumer
culture for sex which leads to sexual experiences being bought (and sold)
regardless of the consequences.

The word ‘pornography’ comes from
two Greek words meaning ‘prostituted woman’ and ‘writings’.“But I’d never have sex with a prostitute”
you protest.If you’ve viewed porn, you
already have.It’s not glamorous, it’s
not normal and it’s not acceptable.

Many women and children are
trafficked for the purposes of making pornography.Next time you click that button, imagine this
girl is your sister or your daughter who has been kidnapped, brutally raped,
probably drugged and definitely held against her will.Your raging appetite may be silenced.

In a piece of research done by
the WHISPER Oral History Project* 80% of prostitution survivors reported that
their customers showed them pornography to illustrate the kinds of sexual acts
they wanted for their money.52% of
these women said that their pimps used pornography to teach them what was expected
of them.This report was published 30
years ago before the age of the internet, smartphones and wifi.How much more is pornography feeding this
industry today?

Porn is deceitful, degrading and
highly damaging.So, the next time the
lustful thirst for sordid sex comes knocking at your door, think about keeping that
door firmly closed.When your sons are
old enough, teach them how to treat women respectfully and expose them to the dangers
of porn so the next generation doesn’t sneer at the consequences.